Yes, we ventured out into the snow storm and made it to the Triangle AMA's Hi-5 Conference for the second year in a row! This year was packed with good information, but what’s been sitting with me since Adam and I left is Heart Marketing vs. Head Marketing, taken from The Power Of Visual Storytelling with @ekaterina. Through other breakout sessions, other speakers talked about how to “look people in the eye digitally” and “be thought leaders” and “engage prospects with content they actually want to consume,” referring to establishing relationships with your community. Don’t just throw content at them that is company-centric; evolve to a consumer-centric approach. Ekaterina used the term “infobesity” in her keynote, which I now know is a real thing. There is so much information out there, how can we possibly consume it all? It is within our nature to seek out information from our fellow peers, friends, neighbors, co-workers and so on, whether it’s online or in person. And we are more likely to share what we find online if we find that it has social currency. Meaning:

The content makes us look good to others

The content is humorous, entertaining or remarkable

The content makes us feel like an insider

An image goes passed culture and language. It transcends barriers. Just as a picture tells a thousand words, a video can tell millions of stories. Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster by our brains than text. And images and videos are easily one of the most shared type of content out there especially when it pulls our heart strings, makes us shed a tear, appeals to our humanity, or strikes something we are passionate about. Take this years’ Superbowl commercials for example . The highest ranking ads were appealing to our hearts – Budweiser and the “Lost Dog”, Always and what it means to be “Like a Girl” and Microsoft showing us how they do the impossible with Braylon, the double amputee. There has been a bigger shift from head marketing to heart marketing, and it seems to making an impact - even if at the time I was crying into the buffalo cheese dip at a Superbowl party. The average adult attention span is 2.8-8 seconds. How do you capture your audience in such a short amount of time?